Project GODUS, the ultimate Peter Molyneux fiasco

[Bubbles]

“We needed to make it because of the feedback we got from you – that it was a click-fest, that you didn’t really know what you were doing or why you were doing it, that there wasn’t enough variation in gameplay, not many people were playing the story, not many people were playing multiplayer. So we went back to the drawing board on the foundations of our features.

GODUS Beta v2.0 Known Issues

• Story mode and Versus mode are disabled

Well, at least they're not trying to fix too many things at once.

 

[set]

I think they should address the click-fest before abandoning many manhours of development (multiplayer in particular probably cost them a lot of work). The core problems with the game propogate to all modes of play. It's a click-fest, which is fine - Diablo is a clickfest and Diablo is certainly a good kind of game. The issue is it's a dull, empty, stupid, clickfest. Mack gives it the most justice in his overview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-D3NgNpth8

 

[Astral Rag]

"This feels delightful, smooth and delicious to do, your hand doesn't get tired."

Spoiler

"Please play Godus and realise the game you had before is nothing like the game you'll get now."

 

[Kaldurenik]

After playing it for a while one can come to one conclusion. Peter dont listen or care. Well thats not a shock and the only reason i own is because my friend got the game for me (and now he have lost interest in the game).

This long... for these changes... And what are they?
More 1 button clicking for phones.
A minigame thrown together.
Horrible ai where the villagers suicide or climb hills and then complain to call the villagers lemmings is an insult to lemmings.
Still pink orbs of crap.
Still a lot of waiting for... Well umh.. the ability to flatten more land.
The new sculpting is still like using a chainsaw instead of a surgeon tool.
Oh we are not collecting cards any more... Thank go... Wait? stickers? Aint this the same thing just another name?
The new "tech" tree. Yeah... sorry its the same linear thing.
Still the goal is to flatten everything.



Still no "unique" religions based upon how you act.
Still no learning villagers.
Still no resource system for the villagers.
No unique buildings.
No temples
No bonuses
Everything should be flat because its the only way to get to wait less.
All the ages are pointless because they are still linear. Oh and lets not forget... Its better to WAIT and get the higher tier stuff then to waste stuff on the lower tier crap (unless its a bonus).


So did this patch improve it?...
Well... Umh there are more things? Are they better? No. Peter missed the point so much that he is out somewhere in another dimension.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-24-can-godus-be-fixed

The last time I checked in on Godus it seemed to have two central problems: intent and implementation. The stuff it was trying to pull off didn't seem particularly interesting - and it wasn't pulling it off very well, either.

This early incarnation of Godus was a god game that didn't make you feel like a god, a strategy game that rejected all but a single strategy. The only thing you could really do - and you had to do it almost all the time - was flatten out the landscape in order to allow your population to grow. You did that for the first dozen hours anyway, and then you had to plant a few farms and get the grain rolling in before you went back to flattening stuff again. Godus was mainly about watching the numbers tick upwards, and those numbers weren't worth the effort. Particularly when the effort itself involved so much clicking. Harvesting belief, summoning followers, moving the land about in its fiddly tiers: click click click.

General mindlessness and the click-heavy nature of achieving your mindless objectives: intent and implementation. These are both serious problems, but only the first one, I would argue, is truly fundamental to a game at alpha stage. Only the first gets at the twitching heart of the design where all the important stuff should be taking shape. And, sadly, it's also the first of these problems that the game's latest incarnation largely ignores. Godus 2.0 is still inane busywork down to its core. It's still a boring, bug-heavy mess that moves at a miserable pace. You just don't have to click quite as much any more.

In terms of thoughtful, strategic play, the game remains a non-event. There was one approach that worked in the original Godus, and it's the only approach that works now. The playing area is a marvellous landscape of hills and valleys and secluded tropical bays. Your job, alas, still centres on taking all of that and rendering it flat.

Godus is still a game about ruining the environment. Forget the legacy of Populous for a minute: in the age of Minecraft or From Dust, Godus' approach feels misguided, a missed opportunity. Look at the beauty of this rugged world! Think of the potential it might hold.Now steamroll the whole thing. Out goes the pleasure of discovery, out goes tactical reasoning, out goes that series of interesting questions that can famously make strategy and god games the greatest games around. Each natural wonder is nothing more than an unsightly bump in your holy tarmac. Every glorious mountain merely represents the time and energy it will take to get rid of it. The wilderness is an infographic depicting your immediate future: inane toil and the pursuit of grim uniformity.

There are hints that 22Cans is trying to remedy this. Progress far enough in the current build and you'll get incentives for settling on higher ground or near trees, for example. It's too little incentive, though, and it's too artificial. The whole mechanical emphasis of the game is built around flattening stuff - the entire layered approach to landscape rendering and manipulation seems focused on clearing things away rather than building things up - so the faint promise of a few bonuses for taking other things into account isn't very effective. There's still no sign of a grand collaboration between your strategy and the landscape, and, without the inclusion of other players or any obvious threats, there's still little reason to actually strategise anyway. Yes, this is an alpha, and it's possible that Godus is genuinely going to burst into life when hub worlds are in place and you can go and meet other cultures. The bland tools you've been given, however (and the taster of player-versus-player that was included in the initial incarnation) don't seem promising.

Despite the new presentation, the whole thing's still as linear as ever. Uninspired design makes all choices - if they even count as choices - pretty binary, because the cards you're given are either boring or absolutely essential. Meanwhile, the delivery sequence is bizarre. Crucial cards like the one that allows you to sculpt multiple layers of earth at once are held back too long, while early cards are so dull that it's hard not to tire of the whole process completely. Godus wears you down as a player, and it's telling that the best stuff it offers aren't the fun things like meteorites or the option to jab angrily at the ground with a thumb, but the things that will lift a little of the burden that the game's already imposed for no obvious reason. Few games are as blandly, perhaps unintentionally, sadistic as this. Few games treat their players and their time with so little respect.

 

[Drax]

So, it's a shit game that will continue to be shit.

 

[Agesilaus]

Just put a new coat of paint on Populous 2 already

 

[Angthoron]

Brace yourselves for more inevitable pictures of crying Pete, apologies, and vague promises to deliver next time.

 

[Delterius]

Sorry, I just can't wait.

Spoiler

http://www.p4rgaming.com/peter-moly...r-realizing-he-can-no-longer-make-good-games/
Peter Molyneux Breaks Down Into Tears Again After Realizing He Can No Longer Make Good Games
by Jack · November 25, 2012

After an awkward interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun where Peter Molyneux broke down into tears after realizing he over-promised in his vision for GODUS, he broke down again in a GODUS project video after realizing he can no longer make good games.




The following is a transcript from the Project GODUS Kickstarter video:

Molyneux: This game will be a reinvention of Populous. It is a throwback to my glory days. After all, I practically invented the God genre of video games.

[pause]

Molyneux: Although I wish I could come up with a more original game. I mean to resort to this, I-

[Molyneux begins to cry]

Camera person: Woah, Pete. Calm down. Let me-

Molyneux: Don’t shut the camera off! I want them to see my tears! I want them to see how much I care about making this project!

Camera person: Well, uh. This is slightly embarrassing, are you sure you want me to-

Molyneux: I already cried like a week ago in some other interview! This is just par for the course now!

Camera person: No really, I’m just going to turn it-

Molyneux: Don’t you dare do it, Jim!

[Molyneux regains composure]

Molyneux: So please, help kick-start GODUS. I promise not to over-promise this time! But GODUS will be the best game you will play next year when it releases!

Project GODUS has been slated for a 2014 release date.

Fellow game designer Will Wright also had a similar breakdown a few days ago after realizing he too can no longer make good games.

 

[Gragt]

What a pitiful PR stunt.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

can't wait for him to die.
mine is not hate, i only want what's best for humanity.

 

[set]

Boring.

The act of drilling into something over and over.

Boring.

Dull. Uninteresting. Flat.

Quitesentially, Godus. Flatten the land, click the trees, make everywhere look the same.

 

[tuluse]

So it's a metaphor for the video game industry

 

[m_s0]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-24-can-godus-be-fixed

The last time I checked in on Godus it seemed to have two central problems: intent and implementation. The stuff it was trying to pull off didn't seem particularly interesting - and it wasn't pulling it off very well, either.

This early incarnation of Godus was a god game that didn't make you feel like a god, a strategy game that rejected all but a single strategy. The only thing you could really do - and you had to do it almost all the time - was flatten out the landscape in order to allow your population to grow. You did that for the first dozen hours anyway, and then you had to plant a few farms and get the grain rolling in before you went back to flattening stuff again. Godus was mainly about watching the numbers tick upwards, and those numbers weren't worth the effort. Particularly when the effort itself involved so much clicking. Harvesting belief, summoning followers, moving the land about in its fiddly tiers: click click click.

General mindlessness and the click-heavy nature of achieving your mindless objectives: intent and implementation. These are both serious problems, but only the first one, I would argue, is truly fundamental to a game at alpha stage. Only the first gets at the twitching heart of the design where all the important stuff should be taking shape. And, sadly, it's also the first of these problems that the game's latest incarnation largely ignores. Godus 2.0 is still inane busywork down to its core. It's still a boring, bug-heavy mess that moves at a miserable pace. You just don't have to click quite as much any more.

In terms of thoughtful, strategic play, the game remains a non-event. There was one approach that worked in the original Godus, and it's the only approach that works now. The playing area is a marvellous landscape of hills and valleys and secluded tropical bays. Your job, alas, still centres on taking all of that and rendering it flat.

Godus is still a game about ruining the environment. Forget the legacy of Populous for a minute: in the age of Minecraft or From Dust, Godus' approach feels misguided, a missed opportunity. Look at the beauty of this rugged world! Think of the potential it might hold.Now steamroll the whole thing. Out goes the pleasure of discovery, out goes tactical reasoning, out goes that series of interesting questions that can famously make strategy and god games the greatest games around. Each natural wonder is nothing more than an unsightly bump in your holy tarmac. Every glorious mountain merely represents the time and energy it will take to get rid of it. The wilderness is an infographic depicting your immediate future: inane toil and the pursuit of grim uniformity.

There are hints that 22Cans is trying to remedy this. Progress far enough in the current build and you'll get incentives for settling on higher ground or near trees, for example. It's too little incentive, though, and it's too artificial. The whole mechanical emphasis of the game is built around flattening stuff - the entire layered approach to landscape rendering and manipulation seems focused on clearing things away rather than building things up - so the faint promise of a few bonuses for taking other things into account isn't very effective. There's still no sign of a grand collaboration between your strategy and the landscape, and, without the inclusion of other players or any obvious threats, there's still little reason to actually strategise anyway. Yes, this is an alpha, and it's possible that Godus is genuinely going to burst into life when hub worlds are in place and you can go and meet other cultures. The bland tools you've been given, however (and the taster of player-versus-player that was included in the initial incarnation) don't seem promising.

Despite the new presentation, the whole thing's still as linear as ever. Uninspired design makes all choices - if they even count as choices - pretty binary, because the cards you're given are either boring or absolutely essential. Meanwhile, the delivery sequence is bizarre. Crucial cards like the one that allows you to sculpt multiple layers of earth at once are held back too long, while early cards are so dull that it's hard not to tire of the whole process completely. Godus wears you down as a player, and it's telling that the best stuff it offers aren't the fun things like meteorites or the option to jab angrily at the ground with a thumb, but the things that will lift a little of the burden that the game's already imposed for no obvious reason. Few games are as blandly, perhaps unintentionally, sadistic as this. Few games treat their players and their time with so little respect.

Molyneux needs a vacation from making video games and people need to ignore him until he goes away. He's not going to fix Godus, because he's too hung up on becoming the next Notch, breaking video game conventions, transcending the boundaries of the medium and all that bullshit. I'm not even sure he knows what a video game looks like. He throws out examples of games he's inspired by, sure, but he doesn't even see them as video games. To him Minecraft was about breaking rules, not about having fun with crafting, building shit and just fucking around to see what happens. I'm all for him to experiment with design and software if that's what he really wants to do, but he probably needs to let go of video games, and commercial software for that matter, because it's painfully obvious his focus is no longer to create something fun to play. I don't know if he even realizes that.

 

[Burning Bridges]

starts crying during interview
"I don’t see that I’ll be alive much longer"

sounds more and more like he decided tol pull a Steve Jobs

 

[Delterius]

Jobs was canonized after death, wasn't he? Maybe we could also get a Saint Molyneux of the Fabled Promise.

 

[Angthoron]

And while Molololinux is dicking around, there's apparently this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crytivogames/the-universim?ref=home_popular

I should probably make a separate thread on this. Looks pretty interesting.

 

[Metro]

Populous was a fine game for its era but there's really no room for a 'spiritual sequel' at this stage. You need a lot more gameplay mechanics to keep it interesting. This was just a shit cash grab but at least it opened some people eyes about how awful Molyneaux has been.

 

[DraQ]

Populous was a fine game for its era but there's really no room for a 'spiritual sequel' at this stage. You need a lot more gameplay mechanics to keep it interesting.

Shit nostalgiafags keep forgetting about.

 

[Metro]

Indeed. It's a land grading simulator.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Populous had a lot more gameplay than Godus, though. It's just that dull.

 

[markec]

They should just turn it into Bulldozer Simulator 2015, atlest it will be popular in Germany.

 

[Space Satan]

This is going to end well

 

[Zeriel]

Peter Molyneux is truly an innovative and groundbreaking developer of monetization.

 

[tuluse]

♫ Imagine all the people
Buying D-L-C ♫